Missions To Russia And Evil Ex Partners
by Nicki Monaz
Summary: Clint and Natasha are sent on a mission to take out an assassin organization in Russia. The leader of these assassins turns out to be a dark character from Natasha's past. Clint is severely wounded and close to death. Natasha has to deal with these assassins she used to know on her own and try to keep Clint alive. Also, the two finally admit their feelings for each other.


"Hawkeye, stop fooling around and shoot him." Black Widow told the archer.

The two had been sent to Russia by Director Fury to capture the leader of an assassin organization. Again, they were Russian assassins, so Natasha had known many of them before she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. Some of them she had worked with.

The man Black Widow was now telling Hawkeye to shoot was named Kira Agafonov, a man she had worked with for nearly three years. She and Hawkeye had gotten past the other assassins and disarmed Kira, who was now the leader of the organization.

"Fury said not to kill him." Hawkeye told her, watching the man at the other end of the arrow he was ready to shoot if need be, "We're only supposed to capture him."

"I know what Fury said." she explained, pointing her Glock 26's at the Russian man, "We should at least injure him enough so he can't get away though. He's dangerous. I'm ready to kill him if I have to."

"I'm surprised at you, Natasha." Kira commented, seeming not to care about the guns and bow that could rip holes through his body any minute, "We used to be partners."

"That's Agent Romanoff to you, Kira." she said coldly, "I never really considered you much of a partner."

Natasha hated him, more than she thought she would.

After she'd joined S.H.I.E.L.D., she came to see the truth of these people. They didn't kill just because they were ordered to; many of them enjoyed it.

Kira Agafonov was one of the worst. He wanted to kill as many people as possible, even if they had nothing to do with the mission. He had killed thousands of innocent people over the years. Natasha wondered why she hadn't noticed sooner. She'd been too focused on her job, her part in the killing. She was glad she'd left and joined the good guys.

"How could you join them?" Kira gestured toward Hawkeye, his voice filled with loathing when speaking of S.H.I.E.L.D., "You and I are the same, Natasha. That red in your ledger; you'll never get it out. They'll never accept you. Those Avengers will never care about you. You are an assassin, and you always will be."

"We care about her more than you ever did." Hawkeye stated, "She's one of us now."

"I don't have to explain myself to you, Kira." Black Widow told him, "You're nothing but a pathetic leech that gets off on murdering innocent people. You're a sorry son of a b**** who deserves what you get. You'll either rot in a deep, dark hole forever or die now."

"We'll see." Kira smirked at her.

Then he yelled something in Russian and the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were suddenly being bombarded with bullets from all directions of the courtyard they were in. A bullet barely missed Hawkeye's head before Black Widow pushed him to the ground.

They got up and ran towards the nearest building, knowing the door was probably locked anyway.

"I thought we took care of all of them." Hawkeye ducked behind a pillar as Black Widow ducked behind the pillar across from him.

"They've gotten better tactics since I was here. I guess Kira took my advice from years ago about having gunmen hide in secret panels on the roof." Black Widow leaned out from behind the pillar and shot at a man on top of the building across the courtyard. He fell off the roof and she ducked back behind the pillar as another assassin aimed and shot at her heart.

"Next time, don't give the bad guys advice on how to kill us. I'd like to live until Christmas." he joked.

"I didn't do it on purpose." she argued, "Shouldn't you have spotted them on the roof? You're not called Hawkeye for nothing."

"You used to be one of them." he countered, "Shouldn't you have anticipated they'd be there?"

They'd shot down the assassins on the roof.

"We can talk about this later. I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment." she turned around and kicked a man that appeared behind her in the chest.

Hawkeye shot the man in the back with an arrow and he fell.

They ran towards Kira Agafonov, who was trying to escape through a secret door.

Black Widow shot him in the left shoulder, but then a man's fist made contact with the side of her face. She fell and rolled out of the way of a sword. Hawkeye ran to help her, but she told him, "I'm fine. Get Kira Agafonov!", so he left her to deal with the man herself.

She reached for her guns, having dropped them when she fell, but the man kicked them away and swung the sword at her again. She rolled out of the way again and jumped up, punching him in the jaw.

"I called Fury for help." Hawkeye called to her, hitting Kira with his bow when he tried to punch him.

More assassins appeared and came at them.

"I told you they were dangerous." Black Widow kicked the man's arm, making him drop his sword, and jumped on his shoulders, wrapping her legs around his neck and doing a flip, making him fall hard on the ground.

"You're more dangerous than these guys." Hawkeye stated, shooting yet another assassin with one of his arrows and punching another in the face.

She and Hawkeye fought more assassins, but many more appeared. The organization was much larger than S.H.I.E.L.D. knew.

Just as Black Widow finished beating twelve men, she heard another gunshot and Hawkeye's pained groan. There was a clatter of his bow hitting the ground.

She turned around to see another man stab him with a knife, twist it 90 degrees, and repeat the action a second time.

Hawkeye fell and she yelled, "Clint!"

Black Widow quickly shot eight men and stabbed five more, running up to him and shooting the man standing over him.

She moved his head onto her lap and asked, "How bad is it?"

"I got shot…and stabbed…" he told her.

"I know that." she resisted the urge to call him an idiot, "Where?"

"My stomach and chest…" Clint started coughing up blood.

Natasha put pressure on his wounds to slow the bleeding, "On a scale of one to ten, how painful is it?"

"Ten…" he gasped as more pain shot through him. He was bleeding a lot.

As tough and cool-headed as she was, Natasha was very worried. Clint was her partner. He couldn't die. He wasn't going to die, was he?

Kira Agafonov tried to sneak up on her, but being the best at what she does in Russia and in the rest of the world, Natasha turned her upper body around and shot him in both knees, stopping him from walking any further. She cursed at him in Russian and threatened to cut off a certain body part essential to his manhood if he moved.

"Nat?" her attention was drawn back to Clint.

"Yes?" Natasha questioned.

"I still think you're more dangerous…" Clint replied. His skin looked paler than it should be.

She laughed, though not able to find it humorous at the moment.

"Hey, if I die, "he told her, "only you can have my bow…Don't let Tony or anyone else have it…And don't get a new partner…I'll haunt you 'til the day you die if you do…"

"You're not going to die, Clint." Natasha grabbed his hand, silently begging that she was right, "You'll be fine."

Where was the help Clint had called for? They should be here by now.

"I might not be fine, Nat…I might die…" Clint insisted, "If I do, I've got to tell you some things…"

A tear slid down her cheek and dropped onto his face, "No. You won't die. I won't let you."

"Please don't cry, Nat." he said, a bit frightened by her reaction, "You've never cried before."

Natasha was shocked at herself. Like Clint said, she'd never cried before. She didn't cry.

"You're my partner." she answered forcefully, "You cannot die. If you die, I've failed S.H.I.E.L.D., I've failed the Avengers, and I've failed you. Please. I need you."

"It's me that needs you." Clint replied, "Like you said, we're partners…We both know there's a reason I made a different call that day I was sent to kill you…Well, I…I love you, Nat…I know you don't like getting close to people, but the Avengers: they're our family and I…"

He was suddenly cut off when Natasha pressed her lips against his. Then, she said, "You just said what I was hoping for for a long time…I love you too, Clint…I didn't think it was possible, but you're right about the Avengers. They are our family…And you…you're the closest to me anyone's ever gotten…You're my best friend, my partner…I care more about you than anything else…"

"Wow…" he surprisedly announced, "I guess not living 'til Christmas is less upsetting now…"

"Don't you give up on me yet, Clint." Natasha told him, "I'll kill you if you decide to die on me."

"I guess I'll have to try not to die then…" Clint answered, "I have to move my secret stash of cookies and candy when we get back…Thor found it…" There was a large pool of his blood on the ground where they were sitting.

"I've known where it is the whole time." she revealed, "I had to give some to the Hulk to stop him from killing Tony a few weeks ago."

"So, that's what happened to my Hershey's…"

"Yeah…I assume Thor ate all your Oreos by now too."

"Darn…" His voice was getting weaker.

"Don't worry. I'll buy you some more." She stroked his hair.

"You're the best…" He couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

"Stay with me, Clint." Natasha silently begged. He'd lost consciousness, but she held onto the knowledge that she could still feel his heartbeat; begging, praying that it would keep going. It was weak, but she could feel it beating, and that was all she had to hold on to.

Twenty minutes later, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the S.H.I.E.L.D. medics arrived. Shockingly, they found thirty eight injured or dead Russian assassins along with their leader captured and a certain female Russian assassin having taken nearly all of them on her own after her partner was dangerously wounded. But to Nick Fury, it really wasn't that shocking. It was Black Widow and Hawkeye after all. They could do just about anything. Even though Agent Barton had gotten wounded, he helped take down one of the most dangerous assassin organizations in the world. He hadn't doubted his agents for a second.

Thankfully, Clint's heart had kept beating long enough for help to arrive. For that, Natasha almost convinced herself it was a result of a miracle or some kind of magic. Either way, she counted it as the greatest blessing she'd ever received.

"What took you so long?" Agent Romanoff asked once Agent Barton was taken away to be treated by the medics.

"The Hulk had a temper tantrum and got in a fight with Stark." Fury answered, "It took a while to get the situation under control. But, I can see you took care of everything here."

"Next time, try being kind to Hulk instead of shooting at him like an idiot. He calms down much easier that way. Clint told me he also likes cookies. Thanks to your ignorance, Clint almost died." Natasha said harshly, but then tried to correct herself, "I'm sorry, sir. That was probably out of line." She was still angry though.

Fury just replied, "I'll take that advice into consideration next time." and reentered the helicarrier.

Natasha followed and went to the infirmary.

She wanted to make sure those medics weren't complete idiots.


End file.
